Is that a camera in your briefcase?

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First they were they banned in public dressing rooms. Now fears of corporate espionage could force mobile phone makers to scale down production of camera phones, despite booming public demand for them.

Governments and companies around the world are worried their corporate secrets will get out if staff are provided with mobiles phones equipped with cameras.

Some companies are forcing manufacturers to give them a choice of buying phones without cameras and, in the case of one American mobile phone company, to take the camera out of its best-selling model altogether.

Korean giant Samsung said yesterday it had been asked by Telstra and Optus to continue to offer conventional phones to corporate clients.

The general manager of mobile phones for Samsung Australia, Josh Delgado, said: "We have spoken to our carrier customers, Optus and Telstra, who sell to the corporate market, and they have mentioned that camera phones and this area [of privacy] are an issue. They would not mention who those customers were, but we've been told that we should continue to manufacture both."

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He said Samsung would have concentrated on the production and promotion of the more expensive camera phones if it had not been pressured by corporate clients fearful of espionage.

The issue is a sensitive one for Optus and particularly Telstra, which provides mobile phones for federal, state and local governments nationwide. "We strongly believe we should offer both phones to consumer and corporate clients and then leave it up to the customer to decide," an Optus spokeswoman said yesterday.

Telstra refused to comment.

A spokesman for the biggest supplier of corporate mobile phones, Nokia, said yesterday he was not aware of "specific conversations" on the issue but that the company would continue to offer both types of phones.

The head of marketing, Antony Wilson, said: "It's something we have anticipated ... that some clients, in particular some government departments, will not want camera phones around. So we will offer both to them."

In Australia there are about 1.5 million camera phones and this number is expected to double by the end of the year.